{"id":8482,"date":"2019-11-19T07:22:44","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T10:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/?p=8482"},"modified":"2019-11-20T11:06:42","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T14:06:42","slug":"po-and-the-consultancies-delivery-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/po-and-the-consultancies-delivery-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"PO and the consultancies delivery teams\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">On this post I\u2019ll describe 3 approaches by 3 different consultancies to address the <strong>need a delivery team has on the Product Owner (PO).<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div>Client Company &#8211; Consultancy Delivery Team<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Please consider the following for this post:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><strong>Client Company<\/strong> &#8211; the company hiring a<\/span>Consultancy Delivery Team to work on some digital product<\/li>\n<li><strong>Consultancy Delivery Team<\/strong> &#8211; the consultancy team delivering the work for the Client Company. For being more illustrative, consider the Client Company and theConsultancy Delivery Team are not colocated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><em>Disclaimer<\/em>: this post do not cover distributed teams and client-consultancy relationship which are very important aspects on this situation.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stateofagile.com\/#ufh-i-521251909-13th-annual-state-of-agile-report\/473508\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">VersionOne 13th State of Agile Report<\/a>: 54% of agile projects uses Scrum (against 1% using XP and 5% using Kanban).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The fact, <strong>many companies hiring consultancies use Scrum<\/strong>: teams work in Sprints, team members have <strong>Daily Sprints<\/strong> to share about the work, teams do <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.funretrospectives.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sprint Retrospective<\/a>s<\/strong>, teams align on the Sprint goals on the <strong>Sprint Planning<\/strong> meeting, and teams do review the accomplished work on the S<strong>print Review<\/strong> meeting.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Scrum framework prescribes three roles: <strong>ScrumMaster (SM)<\/strong>, <strong>Product Owner (PO<\/strong>) and <strong>team member<\/strong>.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><strong>SM is the facilitator<\/strong>, the person familiar with the Scrum framework that should help the Scrum team to reach their Sprint goals by fostering a great teamwork and by removing the blockers that might show up. The SM main goal is to deliver the thing right. <strong>The focus is on teamwork efficiency<\/strong>.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>The PO\u2019s main responsibilities are: (1) to manage the Product Backlog, (2) to maintain the communication with the business stakeholders and (3) to answer the team\u2019s questions about the work related to the product features under creation. The PO main goal is to ensure the team delivers the right thing. T<strong>he PO focus is on product results and efficacy.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>Anyone else on the team is a Scrum team member: a person, either a specialised\u00a0or a cross-functional type of professional, helping the team towards the Sprint goals. Typically, Scrum team members are dedicated to one and only Scrum team. <strong>The focus is teamwork for doing the right thing and doing it right.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>Typically, the Consultancy Delivery Team will provide the majority of the team; in Scrum terms: the team members. SM is usually from the Consultancy Delivery Team as well.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><strong>The challenge comes for the person fulfilling the PO role<\/strong>. This is typically someone from the Client Company. The PO guides the product strategy, therefore it\u2019s very common that such person belongs to the business side of the Client Company.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">In many cases (as the illustrative scenario for this post), the PO is located at the Client Company while the<\/span> Consultancy Delivery Team <span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">is located at the<\/span> Consultancy Delivery\u00a0location<span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">. Besides this colocation challenge,<\/span> <span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><strong>many POs are not experienced working in an agile-fashion<\/strong>, helping creating the User Stories, participating in all Scrum ceremonies and being readily-available to the Scrum team.<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">I work on a consultancy, helping many<\/span> Consultancy Delivery Teams. And I have many\u00a0friends on other consultancies. <span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">So, I realised the PO role challenge is common to\u00a0the<\/span>Consultancy Delivery Teams, and each consultancy has a different approach to it.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Here I share 3 different approaches by 3 big consultancies (I will not share the name of the consultancies, but you probably already know one of<\/span> <span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">them).<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">1. Inception<\/span><\/h2>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Consultancy A makes sure that every project starts with a great inception. This way the team is very aligned about the work, reducing the risk of a mismatch between the business needs and expectations and the delivery work. Check out this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.martinfowler.com\/articles\/lean-inception\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lean Inception article.<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<h2>2. PO Coach<\/h2>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">Consultancy B has a specific consultant named PO Coach. The PO coach basically knows how to be a great PO. This person is at all Scrum meetings\u00a0at the\u00a0<\/span>Consultancy Delivery Team, but spend a good amount of time at the Client Company<span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">.<\/span> <span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">The PO coach is supposed to pair with the<\/span> Client Company\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">PO to make sure the<\/span> Consultancy Delivery Team <span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">needs is fulfilled. If\/when the<\/span> Client Company <span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">PO is\/become amazing and gracefully fulfil the<\/span> Consultancy Delivery Team needs for\u00a0the\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">PO role, the PO coach is released from the<\/span> Consultancy Delivery Team<span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">. In case the Client Company don\u2019t have a PO, the PO coach fulfil this open position while the Client Company hires\/promote\/finds a PO.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<h2>3. PO Team<\/h2>\n<div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Consultancy C follows a PO team strategy.\u00a0On it, some of\u00a0the Scrum team members\u00a0collectively\u00a0fulfil\u00a0the PO\u00a0responsibilities. \u00a0If\u00a0the Client Company PO takes care of\u00a0everything a PO is supposed to do for its Scrum team, then there is very little PO work for\u00a0the PO team; on the\u00a0outer hand, if\u00a0the Client Company PO do not exist or is\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">absent, the PO team fills the gap.\u00a0Check the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leadingagile.com\/2009\/03\/the-product-owner-team\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article on PO team<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">I shared 3\u00a0approaches from 3 consultancies.\u00a0Please\u00a0note that\u00a0they are not mutually exclusive, and many consultancies and teams mix things. \u00a0For example: start with a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.martinfowler.com\/articles\/lean-inception\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Lean Inception<\/a> and then work as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leadingagile.com\/2009\/03\/the-product-owner-team\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PO team<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">You know of another approach?\u00a0Please share about it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/paulocaroli_po-and-the-consultancies-delivery-teams-activity-6602919585119301632-0AR5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On this post I\u2019ll describe 3 approaches by 3 different consultancies to address the need a delivery team has on the Product Owner (PO). Client Company &#8211; Consultancy Delivery Team Please consider the following for this post: Client Company &#8211; the company hiring aConsultancy Delivery Team to work on some digital product Consultancy Delivery Team [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1941],"tags":[],"inception_activities":[],"colaboradores":[],"class_list":["post-8482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procuts-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8482"},{"taxonomy":"inception_activities","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inception_activities?post=8482"},{"taxonomy":"colaboradores","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/colaboradores?post=8482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}